national institute of standards and technology ...€¦ · ed at the beginning of the 20th century....

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg Campus, 1999

NIST 260-150

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Stanley D. Rasberry, AuthorTomara Arrington, Composition and Design

Standard Reference Materials ProgramTechnology ServicesNational Institute of Standards and TechnologyGaithersburg, MD 20899-2320

June 2002

U.S. Department of CommerceDonald L. Evans, Secretary

Technology AdministrationPhillip Bond,Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology

National Institute of Standards and TechnologyArden L. Bement, Jr. Director

Please visit our websitewwwwww..nniisstt..ggoovv//ssrrmm

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Standard Reference Materials have played a major role in the history of the National Institute ofStandards and Technology (NIST), as well as its predecessor organization, the National Bureau ofStandards (NBS). Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) were one of the first tangible outputsfrom the nation’s investment in improved measurement standards and technology that was start-ed at the beginning of the 20th century. As NBS evolved over the last hundred years in terms ofscientific capability and fields of work, SRMs have taken on new forms and new roles in ensuringthat our Nation is second to none in measurement capability.

No one is more familiar with the history of this important program than Stanley Rasberry, long-time Chief of the program as well as a major developer of SRMs himself. In this retrospective,Raspberry captures the spirit and importance of the program for analysts, researchers and tech-nologists everywhere. The reader will find this lively exposition both informative and enlighten-ing about of NIST’s most important programs.

John RumbleAugust 2002

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The Author wishes to acknowledge the fine contributions of Nancy Trahey-Bale and Lee Best fortheir assistance in preparing this document.

SSuummmmaarryyOver the course of its first one hundred years,the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) has made numerous contri-butions to advancing the science and practiceof analytical chemistry. Contributions to fun-damental constants and reference data, suchas determination of the Faraday, Avagadro'snumber, and atomic masses, began at almostthe beginning of this institution when it wasformed in 1901. Instrumentation develop-ment, improvement, and reproducible meth-ods for their use have also been an importantpart of the NIST effort.

This publication describes what may be theorganization's most important and certainly itsmost unique contribution; namely, certifiedreference materials. Ultimately these certifiedreference materials would become known atNIST as standard reference materials (SRMs).This contribution has now been mirroredaround the world with reference materialsbeing certified in at least 25 countries and rou-tinely applied in more than twice that number.The result has been more accurate analyses ofmaterials that impact our safety, health, andwell-being.

BBaacckkggrroouunnddWhile celebrating the first century of NIST,we must note that the contributions of anorganization can only originate withinthe minds and then hard work of thepeople of that organization. This isimportant to remember because ina work as short as this one, it isquite impossible to give fair recog-nition to the thousands who haveproduced the contributions. It isthose people who are remem-bered whenever NIST or "theBureau" are mentioned.

The term Bureau is appropriate to cover thefirst 87% of the century. In 1901, the agencyoriginated as the National Bureau ofStandards (NBS), but had its name abridgedto simply Bureau of Standards in 1903."National" was restored to the name in 1934,to differentiate it from the many state-levelbureaus of standards which had been estab-lished. There was no further change until1988, when the current name NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology wasreceived. While the name has changed threetimes, the character of the place has formedlargely around one theme. That theme is tosupport the development of accurate meas-urements essential to science and technology.Almost as a corollary, work on the measure-ments has led to advancements in the tech-nologies themselves.

The mission of the new agency was definedin its "organic act" legislated by the U.S.Congress. While that very brief act makes nospecific mention of reference materials, sev-eral of its key provisions would provide fortheir inclusion.

Standard Reference Materials - The First Century 11

Aerial view

of the

National

Bureau of

Standards

in 1940.

The entire charge to the new agency wasfound in six provisions:

• custody of the standards;• comparison of the standards used in scien-

tific investigations, engineering, manufac-turing, commerce, and educational insti-tutions with the standards adopted by orrecognized by the Government;

• construction, when necessary, of stan-dards, their multiples and subdivisions;

• testing and calibration of standard meas-uring apparatus;

• solution of problems which arise in con-nection with standards; and,

• determination of physical constants andthe properties of materials, when suchdata are of great importance and are notto be obtained of sufficient accuracy else-where.

The Bureau could have emerged at no moreopportune time. It was the dawn of virtuallyevery technology that we know today - auto-mobiles, airplanes, modern ships and locomo-tives, steel construction, motion pictures,practical radio, and subsequently, television,space craft, computers, and information tech-nology. In the early days, the Bureau was"right in the middle" of every one of thesefields. As we shall see, analytical chemistryhad a role in most.

The need to be relevant frequently directedthe early work in analytical chemistry to top-ics where materials simply were notup to the challengingnew applica-

tions. With these enormous needs in mind,the Congress of the United States gave care-ful deliberation to the staffing of the newBureau. Initially, it decided it would not besufficient to have a director, a physicist andtwo assistant physicists; a chemist and twoassistant chemists also would be allocated.Later, in 1901, the expense of constructingthe new laboratory and the scarcity of fundscaused the Congress to cancel the two assis-tant chemist positions. Thus in its first year,the young agency began trade-offs betweenstaff and facilities that last to this day.

AAnn UUrrggeenntt NNeeeeddMany of the greatest technical challenges ofthe early twentieth century were related tomaterials and their performance.Construction of skyscrapers and suspensionbridges would require new and strongeralloys of steel, and better quality control forPortland cement used in concrete. Tungstenalloy performance would become critical tovacuum tubes for lighting and electronics.Copper alloys would figure heavily in wiringfor communications and in valves and fittingswith nearly endless configurations.

Perhaps the material concerns were nowheremore critical than in the automotive fields.Practical automobiles and aircraft were onthe threshold - they needed anarray of new materialsr a n g i n g

Broken

axles and

car

wheels

caused

numerous

derail-

ments.

22 Standard Reference Materials - The First Century

from nodular cast irons tohigh strength aluminum alloysto specialized rubber to carefullytempered glass. New and vastly largerships were on the drawing boards - theyneeded new alloys of corrosion resistantsteel, monel, bronze, and many otherimproved materials.

Railroad trains had already increased thespeed of overland transport by an order ofmagnitude, but not without the cost of manylives due to material failures. The first pas-senger fatality had occurred in 1833, nearHeightstown, NJ. Former president JohnQuincy Adams and Cornelius Vanderbilt wereaboard the train, but not injured. Preventingfuture loss of lives was an urgent need thatpressed the Bureau into the new venture ofcertifying reference materials.

In 1905, the American Foundrymen'sAssociation approached the Bureau to see ifit would assume leadership of a new workthe Association had recently begun. TheAssociation was trying to solve the problemof rail car derailments due to the fracturingof cast iron wheels. Appropriate alloys hadbeen found and Association research showedthat they would cure the problem. However,the chemical laboratories at the variousfoundries that supplied materials to the rail-roads could not analyze the materials withsufficiently consistent accuracy to provideongoing quality assurance. The problem asthe foundrymen defined it was to have asource of accurately analyzed materials hav-ing compositions at and bracketing the com-positions of alloys known to be acceptable.Those "standardizing" materials could thenbe used by the foundries to maintain theiranalyses in control.

At the time, chemists throughout the worldwere expected to develop and maintain theirown lots of materials that could be used asbenchmarks for calibrating or testing analyses.

Thisprac -t i c ecould helpwith ques-tions of laboratoryinternal consistency but shed little light onanalytical disagreements among several labo-ratories. Methods were practically limited tothose based immediately on first principleswhere standards could be physical. This stillleft open questions of completeness of sepa-ration, stoichiometry, purity of reagents, andother issues. Evaluating the accuracy of newlyemerging instrumental methods would pro-duce even greater need for certified referencematerials to serve, first as accuracy bench-marks, and then as calibrators for quality assur-ance into the future.

The Bureau accepted the challenge and set towork - but not alone. In fact, this very firstreference material project set a precedent forcooperative efforts that continue to this day.Included in that precedent is the idea thatprojects will be started only on demonstratedneed and demand of the technical communi-ty. Furthermore, priority will be assigned tothose projects where cooperation of therequesters is assured. This has helped theBureau select worthy projects over the years.The cooperation has included provision orpreparation of materials and contribution ofdata to the certification campaign. In thecase of the first ever project, cooperationwith the American Foundrymen's Associationextended to all three of these aspects. The

D&H Railroad

wreck at

Richmondville,

N.Y. 1/29/1909.


analytical work was carried out in severalcompanies that were members of theAssociation, and the Association provided tothe Bureau an industrial research associate todo the analytical work at NBS. The youngchemist, John Cain, would become a fullmember of the staff, about twenty yearslater.

When the first project was completed in1906, four materials were placed on saletogether with their certificates of analyses toserve as the needed benchmarks. They con-sisted of bottles of cast iron chips which werelabeled "Standardizing Iron Sample A,"through "Standardizing Iron Sample D."Their worth was quickly realized in improvedcast iron rail car wheels and an improvedsafety record for the railroads.

When the initial lots of materials wereexhausted, they were replaced with new lotsof nearly equal composition. Of course, thenew lots were slightly different, thus new

certification campaigns were required to pro-vide new certificates of analysis. Also differ-ent was the labeling system. By the time thesecond lots were prepared, the cast ironswere part of a larger program of referencematerials, which by about 1910, had becomeknown as "Standard Samples.""Standardizing Iron Sample B" became"Standard Sample No. 4a - Iron B." The num-bers 3, 4, 5, and 6 were never assigned with-out the "a" designation, owing perhaps tothe originals having been issued with letterdesignations. Standard sample numbers 1and 2 had been assigned to other materials,so they were not available to the cast irons.Two of the original formulations of cast ironhave been renewed at every exhaustionsince. For Cast Iron C, there have now been14 lots prepared over the past 95 years.

SSuucccceessss IInnssppiirreess IImmiittaattiioonnThe success of the cast iron reference materi-als led to expansion of the concept into newmaterial types. Certification work on several

other alloys, ironores, and copperslags began thesame year as thecast irons wereissued. All theseactivities caughtthe interest of thesteel producers. Amember of theBureau's VisitingCommittee, AlbertLadd Colby, was aleading authorityon metallurgy andhe urged theBureau to extendits success with castiron into the fieldof steel. Perhapsbecause it wassmaller then, theBureau was quite


Standard Reference Material (SRM) 5m is the fourteenth lot (thirteenth renewal) of

Standardized Iron Sample C, and has in recent years, been certified in cooperation

with ASTM. Note the "C" designation has been dropped.

agile in starting new projects and new coop-erative ventures. It was able to start the neweffort together with the Association ofAmerican Steel Manufacturers in 1907. Aseries of 17 steel standard samples emergedand started NBS-NIST on a path of support tothe US steel industry that has spanned nine

decades. At the beginning of the effort, thechief of the Chemistry Division was Dr.William Noyes, and the analytical work at theBureau was done by John Cain and threeother chemists: Witmer, Isham, and Waters,all of whom were probably industrialresearch associates.

By 1911, the catalog of reference materialshad grown to 25 entries, all in support of

chemical analysis. More importantly, theinterest of the Nation's chemists was growingtoo, with observation of the utility of the"Standard Samples" wherever they wereavailable. Clearly more types of materialswould be needed and they were on the waywith the cooperation of the American

C h e m i c a lSociety, andlater theP o r t l a n dC e m e n tAssociation,the Copper

Development Association, and numerousother groups.

TThhee EEaarrllyy CCaattaallooggWhile the new concept of standard sampleswas sure to expand to many new types, thatexpansion did not produce a rational num-bering system. From 1906 until 1910, num-bers were not assigned and the term stan-dard sample was not used. To help examine

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—— SSttaannddaarrddiizzeedd SStteeeell BBeesssseemmeerr 00..22 11990077 —— SSttaannddaarrddiizzeedd SStteeeell BB..OO..HH.. 11..00 11990088SSSS 99aa BBeesssseemmeerr SStteeeell 00..22%% CC 11991111 SSSS 1166aa BBaassiicc OOppeenn HHeeaarrtthh SStteeeell 11..00%% CC 11991111


some of the materials comprising the first 100certified, two tables are presented. In Table1, the initial 14 metal reference materials arelisted, together with the designations of theirfirst renewals. Table 2 lists other examplesdrawn from the first 100 standard samplenumbers.

It is not clear that SS 7 Iron E was ever pro-duced as a "Standardized Iron E." The earli-est available certificate is for SS 7 without an"a" designation indicating that it may repre-

sent the first time the material was pro-duced. Other metal standard samples

were produced in the 1910 to 1912 time peri-od, as is indicated in Table 2. It is also inter-esting to note that the elapsed time beforefirst renewal was typically only three to fouryears, indicating heavy usage.

It is not surprising that limestone was anearly standard sample - it was useful as arefractory liner in metals production. Thefirst material to be certified that was com-pletely unrelated to metal production wassucrose as a calibrating material for polarime-ters. "SS 2" was reserved for zinc ore as earlyas 1910, although the first archived certifi-cate is dated 1919. Early additions to the cat-alog included primary chemicals to assist incalibrating titrations, and several standardsamples for physical chemistry, especially forcalibrating calorimeters and thermometers.

From the information in Table 2, it wouldappear that there was a slowing of referencematerial production during World War I. Atthe time significant portions of the Bureau


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staff were redirected to the war effort, a pre-cursor to the much larger dedication of per-sonnel (approximately 4000) to supportingthe military in World War II. Shortly after thefirst war, "SS 85" was reserved for the alu-minum alloy "Duralumin" even though it wasnot certified until 1943.

AAnn UUnniinntteennddeedd CCoonnsseeqquueennccee ooff SSuucccceessssiinn RReeffeerreennccee MMaatteerriiaallssThe early work on Standard Samples at theBureau had a profound impact on the laterwork of the agency. The U.S. Congress hadinitially seen the agency as being primarilydedicated to construction and maintenanceof the physical standards of measurement. Itseems quite clear that by looking at the ear-liest staff and their work of the Bureau (see

Table 3), that there was no plan to emphasizestudies in chemical and material fields furtherthan what was needed to support programsin instrumentation and metrology.

Despite the initial lack of agency emphasis onmaterials efforts, the great success of theStandard Samples work weighed heavily insteering most of the growth of the newagency into the direction of solving practicalmaterial problems and, in some cases, usingcutting edge instrumentation and methods.Later amendments to the agency's organicact recognized the Bureau's contributions tomaterials characterization and development,and by 1950 provided specific authority tocertify and distribute reference materials asthe leading U.S. authority.


LLaauunncchhiinngg DDoommeessttiicc IInndduussttrriieessResearch at the Bureau occasionally providedinitiative for the production of a new SRM,and very often provided the tools needed tocertify materials with a reduced uncertainty.There are also cases where the production ofan SRM inspired the start of an industry newto the United States. A striking example ofthat occurred during World War I. Beforethat war, the Bureau was distributing stan-dard samples of sugar for three importantapplications: calibrating saccharimeters; cali-brating calorimeters used in measuring theheat content of fuels and for use in differen-tiating bacteria in medical laboratory tests.Germany was the source of the pure sugarsthat the Bureau characterized, certified, andsold.

When the war broke out and the materialswere no longer available, the Bureau had toproduce its own pure sucrose and dextrose.The German patents and production litera-ture were written so obliquely to protect pro-prietary rights from other producers thatreconstruction of the production processesrequired almost completely original research.The results were well worth the effortbecause the output was not only BureauStandard Samples, but also the technologyfor producing low cost dextrose thatlaunched a new domestic industry forAmerican sugar producers and corn farmers.

The connection with instrument manufactur-ers is perhaps less direct; but nevertheless,just as real. The ideas developed at theBureau to solve all manner of analytical prob-lems were frequently blended with the workof instrument makers to either create newinstruments or impact the progress in devel-opments of existing ones. Perhaps the tradi-tion started with recruitment from 1901 to1904, of the first 26 professional staff mem-bers, seven of whom were from the JohnsHopkins University. Johns Hopkins was at thetime a international leader in spectroscopictechnology, so perhaps it was fitting that theentire Chemistry Division professional staff(2) were from Hopkins - William Noyes andHenry Stokes. It was Noyes who first pro-duced atomic mass data at the Bureau,reporting in 1907, the weights for several ele-ments, including hydrogen at 1.00783.

In 1905, William Coblentz joined the staffand would serve the Bureau for the next 40years. By 1914, William Meggers had alsocome from Johns Hopkins to join the staff,and would contribute for 52 years to a widevariety of spectroscopic techniques thatwould later find their way into commercialproduction.

Just as many of the early instrumental tech-niques for chemical analysis found their basisin spectroscopy, so grew the need for refer-ence materials. This resulted from most spec-trochemical techniques requiring referencematerials as calibrants.

EEaarrllyy CCoonnnneeccttiioonnss -- LLaassttiinngg PPaatttteerrnnssOne of the most interesting aspects found instudying the early technical efforts of the

William Meggers applied

spectroscopy to physical and

chemical measurements.


The Challenger

flight STS-6

provided

(National

Aeronautics

and Space

Administration)

the 10µm

spheres for

SRM 1960.

Bureau is the degree to which they estab-lished enduring programs of reference mate-rial production. Some of these cases are soobvious as to require no further explication,for example the program in cast iron stan-dard samples setting a 95-year-long patternthat lasts to the present. Some others are lessobvious but no less interesting:

RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy - In 1911 Marie Curie pre-pared, the first standard for activity as asealed glass tube containing weighedamounts of radium and radium salts andcharacterized for its gamma ray count rate.The standard was accepted as an interna-tional standard and was maintained at theBIPM1 France. A similar tube was preparedand calibrated with the one at BIPM fordelivery to the Bureau in 1913, becomingour Nation's first standard for radioactivity.This would serve as the start of a programthat would see the Bureau develop refer-ence materials to accommodate everyaspect of radioactivity measurement.

An interesting repayment occurred in1921, for Mme. Curie's earlier generosity tothe scientific community. By that time, shewas in need of additional radium to pursueher investigations, but the material wastoo expensive for her resources. On hear-ing of her plight, a group of Americanwomen banded together and raised thefunds necessary to purchase 1g of radiumfor Mme. Curie. The material was certifiedby the Bureau for purity and activity andwas presented to the famous scientist byPresident Warren Harding.

Today, NIST has more than seventy radioac-tivity SRMs in the catalog. These cover awide range of applications including certi-fied activity for radiopharmaceuticals,alpha particle point sources, and gammaray point sources.

AAvviiaattiioonn//NNAASSAA - From the first days of avi-ation, NBS took an active part in develop-ing the technology. Wind tunnels werequickly constructed to develop improvedairfoils and a special laboratory building(the Dynamometer Building) was con-structed to research the weakest link in thewhole enterprise, the engines. Absolutelythe highest power-to-weight ratio wasneeded and that meant higher compres-sion and extreme demands on fuels.Reference materials were issued for isooc-tane and n-heptane to serve as quality con-trols for the emerging aviation fuel indus-try. Calorimetry reference materials werevital in designing the best fuels for piston,jet and rocket engines.

In 1915 the National Advisory Committeefor Aeronautics (NACA) was formed, theBureau had a leading place in the commit-tee. The other agencies, including theArmy and Navy, did not have aeronauticalfacilities, so the laboratory work fell to theBureau. In late 1932, President-electRoosevelt proposed folding NACA into theBureau. That proposal was never carriedout but in 1946, Hugh Dryden, one of thenation's top theoretical aerodynamisists,left the Bureau to direct all research atNACA. Subsequently he led the transfor-mation of NACA into NASA in 1958.

Later, reference materials of many typescontributed to aerospace development.Aluminum alloys, and high-strength alloyswere needed for skins and airframes. Hightemperature alloys were needed for jetand rocket engine hot-section compo-nents. NDE (non-destructive evaluation)reference materials were needed for moni-toring part reliability in service. Every ref-erence material in support of electronicstechnologies has a carry-over application inaerospace.

1 The Bureau International des Poids and Measures (BIPM) is located in Sevres, a suburb of Paris. It has the taskof ensuring worldwide unifacation of physical measurements.


In the mid-1980s, the Standard ReferenceMaterials Program organized the certifica-tion campaign for the first commercializedmaterial produced in space - a length stan-dard at microscopic scale. Perhaps it wasthe long-term connections between thetwo agencies that gave NASA the confi-dence in NBS to carry out the novel project.The material certified was SRM 1960Nominal 10µm Diameter PolystyreneSpheres (certified as 9.89µm ± 0.04µm).John Vanderhoff of Lehigh U. and DaleKornfeld of NASA had teamed together toproduce spheres in "Monodisperse LatexReactors" aboard five missions in 1982 and1983. The missions were STS 3-4 and STS 6-8, with the spheres for SRM 1960 beingproduced aboard the Challenger's STS 6mission. After the Challenger disaster,George Uriano (SRM chief, 1979 - 1983)served as a Congressional staff member inthe investigation of the tragedy.

FFoorreennssiicc ""SSiiggnnaattuurreess"" - Just as one couldsay that NASA was a Bureau spin-off, thesame is true for the crime laboratory at the

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).The FBI had no crime

lab prior

to 1932, when the Bureau assisted in itsdevelopment. Before that time, theBureau did laboratory work as a service tothe FBI, including the famous Lindberghkidnaping case in 1932. The Bureau hadsignificant impact on the case through thehandwriting analysis of Wilmer Souderwho conducted forensic investigations forthe Bureau from 1913 until 1954.

Most forensic signatures are not in hand-writing. Perhaps more important are bul-let lead markings, broken glass matching,breathalyzer tests, drugs of abuse in urine,and DNA profiling. Over the past 60 years,NBS/NIST has certified reference materialsfor all these signatures.

PPrrooxxiimmiittyy FFuussee//EElleeccttrroonniiccss - A major NBScontribution to the ordinance effort forWorld War II was the development of theproximity fuse that caused shells andbombs to explode at a predeterminedpoint above the ground. By the 1950s, allsuch direct military work was transferredout of the agency. However, a great dealof the technical work associated with thefuses was to miniaturize and harden theassociated electronic circuitry. The funda-mental parts of that work stayed at NBSand stimulated the development of anumber of SRMs.

Today, the SRMs related to electronicscover a wide array from the composition ofsolder alloys to the transmission propertiesof complex optoelectronic devices.Perhaps most basic are those for the con-ductivity and resistance of a variety of met-als and especially silicon. Residual resistivi-ty ratio SRMs are also available for silicon.Dimensional metrology is so critical tosemiconductor manufacture quality assur-ance that NIST has developed photomasklinewidth artifacts, such as SRM 475, forcalibrating optical and scanning electronmicroscopes, and has developed a range ofthin film thickness SRMs for ellipsometry.

HHiigghhwwaayyss ffoorr aa NNaattiioonn - When DwightEisenhower became president in 1953, oneof his programs was to link every part of theNation with a modern high-speed highwaynetwork, the Interstate Highway System.The Bureau of Public Roads at the time hadno laboratory, so it funded significant levelsof work at NBS, including efforts onPortland cement that would eventually beorganized as the Concrete and CementResearch Laboratory. Field laboratories fortesting concrete were maintained in SanFrancisco, CA; Riverside, CA; Denver, CO;Allentown, PA; and, Seattle, WA besides themain NBS facility at Connecticut Avenue andVan Ness Street, in Washington, D.C.

The quality of the roads constructed wouldrest in part on the accuracy with which thePortland cement was formulated to meetlocal gravel, temperature, and humidityconditions. NBS already had experiencewith Portland cement reference materials,so the highway program provided needand opportunity to expand the SRM cata-log with more than a dozen new offeringsfor cement composition, particle size, andrheology.

CCoonnssuummeerr PPrrootteeccttiioonn//HHeeaalltthh - While theBureau has produced many services andpublications of interest to consumers, it hasnever been primarily a consumer productslaboratory. Indeed, if described beyondbeing a metrology laboratory, the morecomfortable niche would be as an industri-ally-oriented laboratory. When theConsumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) was formed in the 1960s, it had nolaboratory and depended entirely uponNBS for laboratory support. During the1970s, the level of work had increased suf-ficiently that CPSC could start its own labo-ratory with the help and transfer of manyNBS staff members.

What remains at NIST today are the complexmetrology issues associated with health-related measurements in such areas as theenvironment, clinical chemistry, pharmaceuti-cal measurements, food labeling, and nutri-tional studies. The general SRM categoriesfor these are listed in Table 7. For thesefields, NIST has excelled in providing hun-dreds of well-selected and characterizedSRMs. Environmental natural matrix materi-als are covered with a wide variety of solids,liquids, and gases being covered for bothinorganic and organic con-stituents. More than 35 differ-ent SRMs serve to validate clin-ical laboratory determina-tions. Most analytical instru-ments found in pharmaceuti-cal laboratories have one ormore SRMs available to pro-vide measurement trace-ability. Some of the newestSRM work has been dedicat-ed to food analysis, withabout 30 types now avail-able.

AA TTeeaamm AApppprrooaacchh - Fromthe earliest days of coop-eration with the AmericanFoundrymen's Association, theBureau has built on the success ofsteady growth in cooperation with techni-cal societies and standards organizations.Perhaps no part of Government is as wel-come in the activities of such bodies. Thismeans NIST is usually the agency mostlikely to be trusted as an "honest techni-cal broker" of ideas and programs. Even apartial list of cooperating organizationswould need to include the AmericanSociety for Testing and Materials (ASTM),the Society of Automotive Engineers(SAE), the Institute for Electrical andElectronic Engineering (IEEE), the



American Chemical Society (ACS), theAmerican Ceramic Society (ACS), theInstitute for Textile and Color Chemists(ITCC), the American Iron and SteelInstitute (AISI), the Copper DevelopmentAssociation (CDA), the College of AmericanPathologists (CAP), and the AmericanAssociation of Clinical Chemistry (AACC).NIST has had joint programs to develop orshare SRMs with every one of these organ-izations and many more besides. SeeAppendix A.

CCoonnttiinnuuiinngg EEffffoorrttssBetween the two World Wars, StandardSample activities grew slowly, but steadily.Industrial needs for materials for chemicalanalysis were the major, almost exclusive,impetus. Starting in World War II the needsfor Standard Samples began to grow andchange.

As a primary national laboratory for mate-rials research, NBS contributed to the

Manhattan Project through uraniumstudies. Among other accomplish-

ments, NBS scientists carriedout pioneering work in the

separation of uraniumisotopes and devel-

oped StandardSamples for

determin-ing the

isotopic composition of materials containinguranium and plutonium. These materialscontinue to serve the country today for theaccurate assay of reactor fuels.

After the war, breakthroughs in the fields ofelectronics, polymer research, and the spreadof spectrometric instruments brought newdemands for reference materials. By the1950s, special hydrocarbon blends were avail-able for calorimetry and Standard Sampleswere being certified for such properties aspH, melting point, and radioactivity. Newhigh temperature and super strength metalalloys were needed to meet the demands ofinnovations in jet aircraft and rockets.

The 50s and 60s saw an acceleration of effortsto certify reference materials with 582 typesavailable in the catalog in 1969. It was dur-ing this period that the Bureau began totransfer some of its efforts in reference mate-rials to other institutions. This will be dis-cussed in more detail in the section: "Closingthe Cycle." During the 1960s, NBS realizedthat SRMs 2 were becoming increasinglyimportant to industry and that industrialdemand would continue to grow. TheBureau also recognized the potential contri-bution SRMs could make in solving measure-ment problems in emerging areas of nationalneed such as clinical and environmentalchemistry.

To appreciate the place and importance ofSRMs in the work of the Bureau at the mid-point of its centennial requires a closer look

at events impacting the agency around themiddle of the 20th century.

2 The term “Standard ReferenceMaterials,” and the acronym “SRM”

were introduced into use by NBS in1965. The term and acronym were

later registered with the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office.


MMiidd--cceennttuurryy TTuurrmmooiillTwo separate, initially very damaging, tribu-lations fell upon the Bureau between 1948and 1952. Eventually, the agency wouldrecover from these two blows with a firmerresolve and an even stronger sense of mis-sion. Before that happened, two directorswould face disgrace and the budget wouldsuffer serious decline. One of the strongestelements of the Bureau's program was itsstandard samples activity, and we will seehow it was a major contributor to restoringboth fiscal and public relations health to NBS.

Edward Condon, fourth director of NBS, wasperhaps its most eminent director in terms ofscientific achievement. He was a noted theo-retician with great insight in atomic andnuclear physics, and provided great service tothe Nation during World War II. Prior toleading NBS, he worked at Los Alamos ondevelopment of the bomb and served withChairman Lyman Briggs (third NBS director)on Committee S-1 to directly advise PresidentRoosevelt on atomic and nuclear issues,including the decision to build the atomicbomb.

After the war, he continued to advisePresident Truman and the Congress. As partof that advice, he strongly advocated the for-mation of the Atomic Energy Commission tomove control of nuclear activities from themilitary to the civilian sector. He became aspokesman for peaceful uses of the atom tobenefit the whole world. Neither of thesepositions were popular with the military,which had a strong post-war victory stand-ing, or with the House Unamerican ActivitiesCommittee. In 1948, that committee chargedCondon with being a risk to National securi-ty. No charges were ever proved, but thecommittee denied the director opportunityto address the charges and he left NBS in1951 to become the director of research at

Corning Glass. In all, it was one of the sadderepisodes of "witch hunting" seen in ourcountry.

The second turmoil also began in 1948 but itpeaked in 1952, thus impacting the fifthdirector, Allen Astin. This cloud over theBureau arose from the assignment to testmany kinds of commercial products. One ofthese, a battery additive named AD-X2, wasfound by NBS to be ineffective. Less con-trolled tests in other places showed somepromise for the additive, so the developer(and more significantly, his congressman)attempted to discredit NBS results. Astin waswell versed in electrical engi-neering and stood behind theresults of his technical staffthrough a firestorm of con-gressional hear-ings and unmea-sured personalattacks. Finally,the Secretary ofCommerce firedAstin. Now, it wasthe turn of thetechnical staff tostand behind theirdirector. Hundredstold the Presidentthat they would goif Astin went.Based on addition-al data from othersources and theunanimous adviceof the NBS VisitingCommittee, theSecretary retainedDr. Astin as direc-tor and he servedwith distinctionuntil retirement in1968, following

(top) Aerial view of

Gaithersburg Campus.

(bottom) Aerial view of

Boulder Campus.

completion of the Boulder laboratory (1954)and of the Gaithersburg facility (1966).

The two episodes could only adversely affect thebudgets from 1952 through 1956. More than90% of NBS funding during the war years wasfrom defense sources and that was beingreduced in peacetime. Turmoil had struck justwhen it was not needed. Table 4 provides asnapshot of the seriousness of the situa-tion. In reading the table, it is importantto note that the budget process is slow andusually follows impacts by about two years.

Dr. Astin's first appropriation from Congresswas for 1954, covering July 1, 1953 throughJune 30, 1954, and at $5.7 million was thesmallest in the previous seven years.

AA NNeeww BBeeggiinnnniinnggOne response of the Secretary of Commerceto the AD-X2 difficulty was to commission ahigh- level assessment of the work and mis-sion of NBS. The study was chaired by MervinKelly, president of Bell TelephoneLaboratories. On October 15, 1953, the com-mittee issued recommendations that would

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shape the Bureau for the next 35 years. Thereport would become known as the KellyReport and it singled out two parts of Bureauwork to praise: basic research in metrology;and, the value of the standard samples pro-gram. The Kelly Report contained ten rec-ommendations that are grouped into threecategories and presented in Table 5, with thenumbers indicating the sequence of the rec-ommendations as found in the report.

It would be overreaching to say that NBSStandard Samples rescued the Bureau at thecentury's mid-point, but it would be fair tosay that they had made a very impressivemark and again had a prime role in shapingthe Bureau's new mission. New emphasiswas given to moving the development ofstandard samples beyond chemistry alone.The new approach started slowly. Then, in1964, the Office of Standard Reference

Materials was established andgiven the responsibility fordirecting all SRM activi-ties. Table 6 providesa list of the leadersfor reference mate-rial activities bothbefore and aftercreation of the newoffice. Previouslythe individual tech-nical divisions hadmanaged separatecomponents of theSRM program withc o o r d i n a t i o nthrough theA n a l y t i c a lChemistry Division.With the establish-ment of a new

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office,a number of newthrusts were developed. Newprogram areas were identified and initiat-ed, including the start of what was tobecome a major effort in developing SRMsfor clinical chemistry. For a list of some ofthe key SRMs beyond the first 100, seeAppendix B.

Through the 1970s, the program had its mostproductive decade in terms of the develop-ment of both numbers and types of SRMs.Over 600 new SRMs were certified duringthat period and about 250 were discontin-ued. By 1979, 1,060 types appeared in thecatalog. Typical of the research activity into new SRM types in this period was awhole array of environmental natural matrixmaterials certified for inorganic constituents.Leading the list, and arguably the mostimportant materials of their era, were SRM1571 Orchard Leaves, SRM 1645 RiverSediment, and SRM 1648 Urban ParticulateMatter. John Taylor directed the certificationof these materials. The river sediment wasprepared from material dredged from theIndiana Harbor Canal, near Gary, Indiana.Heavily loaded with toxic metals the materialserved as the initial benchmark for environ-mental studies in the field. It is also impor-tant to note from an analytical perspective,that these were the first environmentalmatrix materials to receive extensive applica-

tion of the new isotope dilu-tion mass spectrometrymethod developed by NBS andwhich was also used to goodeffect in the certification ofSRM 909 Human Serum.

During the 1980s, the manyadvances in inorganic environ-mental reference materials

were extended by the additionof SRM certifications for organicanalytes of environmental healthconcern. Some of these included

PCBs in human serum, in oil, and insediments. Also made available were

SRMs with certified values for a variety offorms of dioxin, polynuclear aromatic hydro-carbons, halocarbons, chlorinated pesticides,and other priority pollutants.

Food-based SRMs began coming into theinventory in the 70s and 80s, with the intro-duction of such materials as wheat flour, riceflour, and freeze-dried bovine liver, oyster tis-sue, and spinach leaves. The SRM effortstoward better coverage of food types reallyhave seen the most progress in the 1990s,with work being dedicated to certifyingmixed diet food materials, infant formula,and individual foodstuffs for vitamin con-tent. Efforts along these lines are sure tocontinue into NIST's next century.

TTooddaayy''ss CCaattaallooggAs impressive as is the history of SRM produc-tion and certification, perhaps even moreimpressive is the work summarized in the cur-rent catalog and in the work program forfuture certification. Table 7 provides the cat-egory names that cover the approximately1400 SRMs and other reference materialsavailable in the current SRM catalog, avail-able under the NIST home page on the WorldWide Web as well as in printed form.


Wide dissemination of information on avail-ability, including exhibits at 5 to 10 confer-ences each year, helps theprogram distribute morethan 35,000 units ofmaterial to about 10,000c u s t o m e r s .Approximately one-thirdof each year's sales aredelivered abroad.

CClloossiinngg tthhee CCyycclleeAs many types of referencematerials matured and NISTinterests turned to othertechnologies, efforts havebeen made to find institu-tions willing to receive trans-fer of the materials andresponsibilities. This is essen-tial to permit reallocation ofscarce resources to fund new efforts.

During the 1950s and 60s, some of the first ofthese transfers began to take place. Theextensive hydrocarbon blend project wastransferred to the American PetroleumInstitute. Color and fading SRMs were trans-ferred to the American Association of TextileChemists and Colorists, and viscosity materi-als went to Carnegie-Mellon University.During the 1980s, in part for security reasons,the SRMs for uranium and plutonium weretransferred to the New Brunswick Laboratoryof the US Department of Energy located atArgonne National Laboratory. At the begin-ning of the 1990s, NIST was closing out itswork on rubber compounding so about adozen types of rubber compounding SRMswere transferred to ASTM. These are a fewof many examples of "passing the baton" onreference materials that NIST can no longersupport.

Not all the transfer efforts have involvedactual movement of the materials. Most ofthe metal materials that have figured so

heavily in the early devel-opment of the Standardsample and SRM pro-grams, have remained at

NIST, but much of the certification effort onrenewal lots is only undertaken by laborato-ries organized in cooperation with ASTM. Itis highly likely that the trend will be for NISTto continue to seek partners in industry, uni-versities, or other government agencies toprovide homes for SRMs and RMs beingclosed out at NIST.

BBeenneeffiitt//CCoossttThe annual cost each year for all types ofmeasurements in the United States is countedin the hundreds of billions of dollars. A smallview of the scale and vigor of the activity inanalytical chemistry alone is seen each year atthe Pittsburgh Conference on AnalyticalChemistry and Applied Spectroscopy whereabout 30,000 conferees gather, representingperhaps a tenth of their colleagues working inthe field. Those who have attended this con-ference for many decades will recognize themany changes in the field that have broughtsignificant improvements in effectiveness andefficiency to most types of chemical analysis.The driving forces behind these changes haveincluded the rapid and far-reaching develop-ment of instrumentation, the improvement of

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analytical methods, and the avail-ability of Standard ReferenceMaterials from NIST and sec-ondary suppliers.

It is not hard to calculate thatan SRM contribution to meas-urement improvement, even assmall as 0.1%, would save com-panies who measure hundredsof millions of dollars each year -easily justifying the approxi-mately $10 million spent annual-ly to buy SRMs. Client demandfor ever increased numbers oftypes provides a qualitative indi-cator of the program benefits.The demand requires careful pri-oritization for it greatly exceedseach year's SRM budget. Table 8 summa-rizes the approximate number of SRM typesavailable at ten-year intervals. The tabledata are not exact, as no hard data wererecorded for most of the intervals. However,several sources have been studied and thevalues are probably dependable with anuncertainty of less than 10% of each value.Reasons for the ambiguity include discontin-uation of SRMs (with perhaps 1000 types hav-ing been discontinued over the history of theprogram) and an uncertain number of mate-rials listed in catalogs being out of stock at agiven time. Additionally, SRMs have notbeen numbered sequentially, complicatinghistorical counts.

What is harder to quantitate is the social con-tribution made by SRMs. In a study by theResearch Triangle Institute on the economicimpact of SRMs for sulfur in fossil fuels, threeeconomists led by Sheila Martin determinedthat the group of SRMs had a benefit/costratio of 113, and a social rate of return ofmore than 1,050%. Similar conclusions havebeen reached at other times and in otherstudies with regard to a variety of SRMs.While not as quantifiable, there are major

benefits topeople dependent on good clinical measure-ments; for example, the child whose epilepticseizures are better controlled by measure-ments improved with SRMs. In anotherexample, cholesterol measurement uncer-tainties have been reduced from 20% in the1970s to 5% in the 1990s, again with the helpof SRMs. It is clear that customers' demandsfor more and better SRMs are unrelenting.Despite the common complaint "SRMs costtoo much," customers continue to buy themin quantities adequate to fund future certifi-cation programs.

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11994400 220000 11999900 11220000

11995500 225500 22000000 11330000


CCoollllaabboorraattiioonn AArroouunndd tthhee WWoorrllddEspecially over the last five decades, theBureau has nurtured strong ties for interna-tional cooperation. More recently, about 25years ago, the International Organization forStandardization (ISO) accepted as a CouncilCommittee, a group to work on referencematerials. The committee was first referredto as REMPA and very quickly had a change inname to ISO Committee on ReferenceMaterials (REMCO). Strong impetus for itsfounding and early success was supplied byNBS staff members such as Bill Andrus, PaulCali, and George Uriano. REMCO has becomethe focus for defining the terminology andpractices of reference material certificationand use.

NIST has participated in many bilateral andmultilateral cooperations. Some of thesehave had as a goal, certification of a specificSRM or groups of SRMs, while others havebeen oriented toward helping other coun-tries get started in the field. As an exampleof the latter, NIST hosted approximately twohundred chemists from China over the firstfifteen years following renormalization ofrelations between the two countries.Analysis of SRMs was part of the effort formany of the chemists. Some of them, onreturn to China, have established a veryvital program in production of ref-erence materials. On a small-er scale, cooperative proj-ects have been sharedwith Mexico follow-ing the imple-mentation ofthe NorthAmerican

Free Trade Agreement and agreements forcooperation in metrology. Additional effortshave been carried out with France, theUnited Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Egypt,Poland, and several other countries.

Some of the most effective collaborations arethose aimed at gathering data to characterizeproposed new reference materials. In recentyears these have included many countriescontributing to the development of SRMs. Afew examples would include the certificationof infant formula and mixed diet SRMs, andalso a large suite of food RMs from Canada.Other efforts have included contributionsfrom most of the world's industrialized coun-tries. An earlier example occurred in the late1970s. NBS partnered with 70 individualsfrom 22 organizations in the U.S. copperindustry and the ASTM to develop a series ofunalloyed copper SRMs. Robert Michaelis,Jerry Hust, and Lynus Barnes directed theeffort which received not only a large meas-ure of U.S. industrial support, but also thecontribution of data from Canada, SouthAfrica, South America, and the European con-tributors.

CCoonncclluussiioonnThe aim of this brief account has been to

highlight a few of the many con-tributions that NBS-

NIST has madeto the

world



through the certification and distribution ofreference materials. The selection of exam-ples cited only begin to probe the surfaceand cannot do real justice to the program inits entirety over almost 100 years. Manychemists will, however, relate to the greatfeeling of success that comes when analyzingan SRM from NIST and obtaining the certifiedvalues or discovering a disagreement, there-by preventing the propagation of an error!

Standard Samples and SRMs have beenamong the most widely known and distrib-uted measurement artifacts of all theNBS/NIST contributions, with several millionunits having been circulated in the first 100years. Few are the scientist around the worldwho have not heard of SRMs and the value

they provide for validating a method or cali-brating an instrument. By promoting andsharing the ideas and technologies of referencematerial development, the Bureau has been agood neighbor in the world community.

Standard Samples and SRMs have represent-ed some of the finest efforts produced byNIST. By successfully solving material-relatedproblems and bringing attention to thosesuccesses, the work on reference materialshas had a major effect on the developmentof the early Bureau's selection of work pro-grams and ultimately its character as a world-class metrology organization. It has been anexciting century for the field of referencematerials in support of analytical chemistry

and the other sciences.Perhaps it will be seenin another 100 years asa worthy introductionto the even greaterthings that are yet tocome for NIST SRMs.

For those inclined tospeculate about thefuture, a few of theauthor's notions are tab-ulated in Appendix C.The only certaintyabout them is thatthey are uncertain.They are most likely tobe seen in retrospect astoo conservative.


The NBS/NIST reference materials programhas, since it began to develop reference mate-rials in 1904, benefited from close coopera-tion with many of the nation's finest technicalsocieties and associations. It is clear todaythat without this cooperation, the programwould either never have started or would bevastly different and probably greatly dimin-ished in size and scope. None of the allianceshas been more far reaching and had greaterimpact than the one with the AmericanSociety for Testing and Materials (ASTM).Starting before the second world war, thecooperation has arranged for the shareddevelopment of more than 1000 StandardSamples and Standard Reference Materials.Formal Research Associate Programs haveposted ASTM staff at NIST to participatedirectly in the preparation and measurementof candidate materials, and, perhaps evenmore importantly, to arrange for the techni-cal assistance of many contributors from hun-dreds of industrial laboratories. Today, ASTME01.94, Subcommittee on Development ofReference Materials for the Chemical Analysisof Metals, Metal-Bearing Ores and RelatedMaterials, meets semiannually to prioritize

requests to NIST for new and renewal refer-ence materials and to cooperate in theirdevelopment.

In 1987, the author prepared a list of selectedinstances where SRMs are specified for use inASTM technical standards. The list is by nomeans complete (for example ASTM D02.SC3,Subcommittee on Elemental Analysis,recently included SRM 1848 "LubricantAdditive Package" in new standardsfor motor oil test methods) but isgiven below to indicate the scopeof SRM inclusion in ASTM stan-dards.

During its first century, NIST hasprovided technical staff support toASTM, filling as many as 800 com-mittee assignments in some years.Several staff members have served asdirectors on the ASTM Board. The formerchief of the Standard Reference MaterialsProgram, Nancy Trahey-Bale, has been one ofthose, having served as treasurer and ulti-mately as chairman of the Board of Directorsfor ASTM in 1993.

AAppppeennddiixx AA CCooooppeerraattiioonn WWiitthh AASSTTMM iinn SSttaannddaarrdd RReeffeerreennccee

MMaatteerriiaall DDeevveellooppmmeenntt


SSeelleecctteedd EExxaammpplleess ooff SSRRMM IInnccoorrppoorraattiioonn iinn AASSTTMM SSttaannddaarrddss ((aass ooff 11998877))

AASSTTMMSSTTAANNDDAARRDD TTEESSTT NNIISSTT SSRRMM

CC 220044 CCeemmeenntt FFiinneenneessss ((BBllaaiinnee)) 111144nn PPoorrttllaanndd CCeemmeennttCC 111155 CCeemmeenntt FFiinneenneessss ((WWaaggnneerr)) 111144nn PPoorrttllaanndd CCeemmeennttCC 443300 SSiieevvee RReessiidduuee 111144nn PPoorrttllaanndd CCeemmeennttCC 333366 GGllaassss AAnnnneeaalliinngg aanndd SSttrraaiinn PPooiinnttss 771111 aanndd 771177 GGllaassss VViissccoossiittyyCC 333388 GGllaassss SSoofftteenniinngg PPooiinnttss 771111 aanndd 771177 GGllaassss VViissccoossiittyyCC 665577 GGllaassss EElleeccttrriiccaall RReessiissttiivviittyy 662244 GGllaassss EElleeccttrriiccaall RReessiissttiivviittyyCC 777700 GGllaassss SSttrreessss OOppttiiccaall CCooeeffffiicciieenntt 770088 aanndd 770099 GGllaassssCC 882299 GGllaassss LLiiqquuiidduuss TTeemmppeerraattuurree 777733 GGllaassss LLiiqquuiidduuss TTeemmppeerraattuurree

DD 11223388 MMeelltt FFllooww RRaattee ((PPllaassttiicc)) 11447755 aanndd 11447766 PPoollyyeetthhyylleenneeDD 11550055 DDeennssiittyy ((PPllaassttiicc)) 11447755 aanndd 11447766 PPoollyyeetthhyylleenneeDD 11443344 GGaass TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn RRaattee ((VVoolluummeettrriicc)) 11447700 PPoollyyeesstteerr FFiillmmDD 11443344 GGaass TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn RRaattee ((MMaannoommeettrriicc)) 11447700 PPoollyyeesstteerr FFiillmmDD 33998855 GGaass TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn RRaattee ((CCoouulloommeettrriicc)) 11447700 PPoollyyeesstteerr FFiillmmDD 11664466 MMoooonneeyy VViissccoossiittyy 338888mm BBuuttyyll RRuubbbbeerrDD 22226688 CChheemmiiccaall AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff FFuueellss 11881166aa IIssooooccttaanneeDD 33117777 SSuullffuurr AAnnaallyyssiiss iinn CCooaall aanndd CCookkee 22668822--22668855 SSuullffuurr iinn CCooaallDD 44223399 SSuullffuurr AAnnaallyyssiiss iinn CCooaall aanndd CCookkee 22668822--22668855 SSuullffuurr iinn CCooaallDD 22779955 AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff CCooaall aanndd CCookkee AAsshh SSooddaa FFeellddssppaarr

EE 2277 AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff ZZiinncc aanndd ZZiinncc AAllllooyyss 9944cc ZZiinncc BBaassee AAllllooyyEE 112299 AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff TThheerrmmiioonniicc NNiicckkeell 667711--667733 NNiicckkeell OOxxiiddeeEE 332222 AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff SStteeeellss aanndd CCaasstt IIrroonnss nnuummeerroouuss sstteeeell//iirroonn SSRRMMss cciitteeddEE 553399 AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff 66AAll--44VV TTiittaanniiuumm AAllllooyy 117733 aanndd 665544aa TTiittaanniiuumm AAllllooyyEE 116622 FFllaammee SSpprreeaadd IInnddeexx 11000022cc SSuurrffaaccee FFllaammmmaabbiilliittyyEE 664488 CCrriittiiccaall RRaaddiiaanntt FFlluuxx 11001122 FFlloooorriinngg RRaaddiiaanntt PPaanneell

FF 774466 PPiittttiinngg aanndd CCrreevviiccee CCoorrrroossiioonn 11889900--11889911 CCrreevviiccee CCoorrrroossiioonn

Numbering of Standard Samples andStandard Reference Materials has beenassigned according to several different sys-tems during the first century of productionand certification. Almost all of the first 100SRMs were completed before 1930 andassigned numbers more or less in sequence,with the exception of the first four "standardsamples" as was discussed in the main text.Occasionally a number was reserved for a cer-tain SRM, such as 85 for aluminum alloy(Duralumin) first issued in 1943, that had adelayed issue or was not issued at all. In afew cases, numbers for unissued materialsand SRMs that were issued but discontinuedhave been reused for different materials.

Current practice retires the numbers of dis-continued materials. Typically, when a given

lot of material for an SRM is exhausted andreplaced with a new lot, new certificationmeasurements and a new certificate arerequired. The new lot of the SRM retains itsnumerical designation and a lower case let-ter is appended or changed to denote thelot. For example, SRM 916a Bilirubin is thefirst reissue (second material lot) of SRM 916Bilirubin, while SRM 955b Lead in Blood isthe third lot of that material.

The table that follows sketches the developmentof SRM types over time by listing the date of ini-tial issue for selected key materials. The list isintended only to be representative as it includesbut a few percent of all materials issued.Selection for the list typically indicates the SRM isan early member of a given material type.


SSeelleecctteedd KKeeyy NNBBSS//NNIISSTT RReeffeerreennccee MMaatteerriiaallss BBeeyyoonndd tthhee FFiirrsstt 110000

SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN110022 SSiilliiccaa BBrriicckk 11993322 CCoommppoossiittiioonn110033 CChhrroommee RReeffrraaccttoorryy 11993344 CCoommppoossiittiioonn111122 SSiilliiccoonn CCaarrbbiiddee 11993377 CCoommppoossiittiioonn111133 ZZiinncc CCoonncceennttrraattee 11994411 CCoommppoossiittiioonn111199 CChhrroommeell PP 11993355 TThheerrmmoommeettrryy

112200 PPhhoosspphhaattee RRoocckk 11993399 CCoommppoossiittiioonn113366 PPoottaassssiiuumm DDiicchhrroommaattee 11994488 OOxxiiddiimmeettrriicc114400 BBeennzzooiicc AAcciidd 11994422 MMiiccrrooccoommbbuussttiioonn114477 TTrriipphheennyyll PPhhoosspphhaattee 11996699 MMiiccrrooaannaallyyttiiccaall115544 TTiittaanniiuumm DDiiooxxiiddee 11994433 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

116600 SSttaaiinnlleessss SStteeeell 1199CCrr--99NNii--33MMoo 11994499 CCoommppoossiittiioonn116622 NNii--CCuu AAllllooyy 11994499 CCoommppoossiittiioonn116644 MMnn--AAll BBrroonnzzee 11995511 CCoommppoossiittiioonn116655 GGllaassss SSaanndd 11994488 CCoommppoossiittiioonn117733 TTiittaanniiuumm BBaassee AAllllooyy ((66AAll--44VV)) 11995577 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

AAppppeennddiixx BB KKeeyy NNBBSS RReeffeerreennccee MMaatteerriiaallss BBeeyyoonndd tthhee FFiirrsstt 110000


((CCoonnttiinnuuaattiioonn ooff TTaabbllee))SSeelleecctteedd KKeeyy NNBBSS//NNIISSTT RReeffeerreennccee MMaatteerriiaallss BBeeyyoonndd tthhee FFiirrsstt 110000

SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN118877 BBoorraaxx ppHH SSttaannddaarrdd 11994477 ppHH SSttaannddaarrdd330033 BBuurrnntt SSiieennnnaa 11994444 CCoolloorr333300 CCooppppeerr OOrree MMiillll HHeeaaddss 11997733 CCoommppoossiittiioonn333311 CCooppppeerr OOrree MMiillll TTaaiillss 11997733 CCoommppoossiittiioonn334433 SSttaaiinnlleessss SStteeeell 1166CCrr--22NNii 11996622 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

334499 WWaassppaallllooyy 11995599 CCoommppoossiittiioonn447755 OOppttiiccaall MMiiccrroossccooppee LLiinneewwiiddtthh MMeeaassuurree 11998811 LLeennggtthh448800 EElleeccttrroonn MMiiccrroopprroobbee SSttaannddaarrdd ((WW--2200MMoo)) 11996688 CCoommppoossiittiioonn448822 GGoolldd--CCooppppeerr WWiirreess ffoorr MMiiccrroopprroobbee 11996699 CCoommppoossiittiioonn448844 SSccaannnniinngg EElleeccttrroonn MMiiccrroossccooppee MMaaggnniiccaattiioonn 11997777 LLeennggtthh

448855 AAuusstteenniittee iinn FFeerrrriittee 11997700 CCoommppoossiittiioonn559922 HHyyddrrooccaarrbboonn BBlleenndd NNoo.. 11 11996611 CCoommppoossiittiioonn660000 BBaauuxxiittee 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn660011 SSppeeccttrrooggrraapphhiicc AAlluummiinnuumm 11995511 CCoommppoossiittiioonn661100 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn GGllaassss MMaattrriixx 11997700 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

662200 SSooddaa LLiimmee FFllaatt GGllaassss 11997722 CCoommppoossiittiioonn662211 SSooddaa LLiimmee CCoonnttaaiinneerr GGllaassss 11997755 CCoommppoossiittiioonn662233 BBoorroossiilliiccaattee GGllaassss 11997766 CCoommppoossiittiioonn663333 PPoorrttllaanndd CCeemmeenntt 11997744 CCoommppoossiittiioonn664400 SSiilliiccoonn PPoowwddeerr ffoorr XX--rraayy DDiiffffrraaccttiioonn 11997744 LLaattttiiccee PPaatttteerrnn

667711 NNiicckkeell OOxxiiddee 11996600 CCoommppoossiittiioonn667744 XX--rraayy PPoowwddeerr DDiiffffrraaccttiioonn 11998833 IInntteennssiittyy667799 BBrriicckk CCllaayy 11998877 CCoommppoossiittiioonn668800 HHiigghh PPuurriittyy PPllaattiinnuumm 11996677 CCoommppoossiittiioonn770022 LLiigghhtt SSeennssiittiivvee PPllaassttiicc CChhiipp 11996666 FFaaddiinngg

770055 PPoollyyssttyyrreennee 11996633 MMoolleeccuullaarr WWeeiigghhtt774400 ZZiinncc FFrreeeezziinngg PPooiinntt 11997700 TTeemmppeerraattuurree776622 MMaaggnneettiicc MMoommeenntt -- NNiicckkeell DDiisskk 22000000 MMaaggnneettiicc MMoommeenntt776677 SSuuppeerrccoonndduuccttiivvee FFiixxeedd PPooiinntt 11997744 TTeemmppeerraattuurree777722 MMaaggnneettiicc MMoommeenntt -- NNiicckkeell SSpphheerree 11997788 MMaaggnneettiicc MMoommeenntt

778811 MMoollyybbddeennuumm -- HHeeaatt CCaappaacciittyy 11997777 HHeeaatt CCaappaacciittyy887700 CCoolluummnn PPeerrffoorrmmaannccee ffoorr LLCC 22000000 EEffffiicciieennccyy887777 CChhiirraall SSeelleeccttiivviittyy ffoorr LLCC 22000000 SSeelleeccttiivviittyy990099 HHuummaann SSeerruumm ((CClliinniiccaall)) 11998800 CCoommppoossiittiioonn991111 CChhoolleesstteerrooll ((CClliinniiccaall)) 11996677 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

991122 UUrreeaa ((CClliinniiccaall)) 11996688 CCoommppoossiittiioonn991133 UUrriicc AAcciidd 11996688 CCoommppoossiittiioonn991144 CCrreeaattiinniinnee 11996688 CCoommppoossiittiioonn991166 BBiilliirruubbiinn 11997711 CCoommppoossiittiioonn992277 BBoovviinnee SSeerruumm AAllbbuummiinn ((TToottaall PPrrootteeiinn)) 11997777 CCoommppoossiittiioonn


SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN993300 GGllaassss FFiilltteerrss ffoorr SSppeeccttrroopphhoottoommeettrryy 11997711 TTrraannssmmiittttaannccee993344 CClliinniiccaall LLaabboorraattoorryy TThheerrmmoommeetteerr 11997744 TTeemmppeerraattuurree994455 PPlluuttoonniiuumm MMeettaall 11997711 AAssssaayy994466 PPlluuttoonniiuumm IIssoottooppiicc 11997711 CCoommppoossiittiioonn995555 LLeeaadd iinn BBlloooodd 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

996688 FFaatt SSoolluubbllee VViittaammiinnss iinn HHuummaann SSeerruumm 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn998877 AAssssaayy--IIssoottooppiicc SSttrroonnttiiuumm 11997711 AAssssaayy && CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11000011 XX--rraayy FFiillmm SStteepp TTaabblleett 11997733 OOppttiiccaall DDeennssiittyy11000033 CCaalliibbrraatteedd GGllaassss SSpphheerreess 11996655 LLeennggtthh11000088 PPhhoottooggrraapphhiicc SStteepp TTaabblleettss 11997711 OOppttiiccaall DDeennssiittyy

11001100 MMiiccrrooccooppyy RReessoolluuttiioonn TTeesstt CChhaarrttss 11996633 RReessoolluuttiioonn11001133 PPoorrttllaanndd CCeemmeenntt 11996622 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11008833 WWeeaarr MMeettaallss iinn LLuubbrriiccaattiinngg OOiill 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11224444 IInnccoonneell 660000 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11224466 IInnccoollooyy 880000 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11226611 AAIISSII 44334400 SStteeeell 11997700 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11332211 CCooaattiinngg TThhiicckknneessss -- NNoonnmmaaggnneettiicc oonn SStteeeell 11998888 LLeennggtthh11338877 CCooaattiinngg WWeeiigghhtt -- GGoolldd oonn NNiicckkeell 11998855 LLeennggtthh11440000 BBoonnee AAsshh 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11447700 PPoollyyeesstteerr FFiillmm -- GGaass TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn 11997788 TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn

11447755 LLiinneeaarr PPoollyyeetthhyylleennee 11996699 MMoolleeccuullaarr WWeeiigghhtt11447799 PPoollyyssttyyrreennee 11998811 MMoolleeccuullaarr WWeeiigghhtt11449911 AArroommaattiicc HHyyddrrooccaarrbboonnss iinn HHeexxaannee//TToolluueennee 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11449922 CChhlloorriinnaatteedd PPeessttiicciiddee iinn HHeexxaannee 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11551111 MMuullttii--DDrruuggss ooff AAbbuussee iinn FFrreeeezzee--ddrriieedd UUrriinnee 11999944 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11551155 AAppppllee LLeeaavveess 11999911 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11552211 BBoorroonn--ddooppeedd SSiilliiccoonn SSlliicceess ffoorr RReessiissttiivviittyy MMeeaass.. 11997788 RReessiissttaannccee11552233 SSiilliiccoonn RReessiissttiivviittyy ffoorr EEddddyy CCuurrrreenntt TTeesstteerrss 11998855 RReessiissttaannccee11554444 FFaattttyy AAcciiddss && CChhoolleesstteerrooll iinn FFrroozzeenn DDiieett 11999966 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11554466 MMeeaatt HHoommooggeennaattee 22000000 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11554477 PPeeaacchh LLeeaavveess 11999911 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11554488 TToottaall DDiieett 11999900 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11554499 NNoonn--ffaatt MMiillkk PPoowwddeerr 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11556633 CChhoolleessttrrooll && FFaatt--SSoolluubbllee VViittaammiinnss iinn CCooccoonnuutt OOiill 11998877 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11556666 OOyysstteerr TTiissssuuee 11997799 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11556677 WWhheeaatt FFlloouurr 11997788 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11556688 RRiiccee FFlloouurr 11997788 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11557700 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn SSppiinnaacchh 11997766 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11557711 OOrrcchhaarrdd LLeeaavveess 11997711 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11557777 BBoovviinnee LLiivveerr 11997722 CCoommppoossiittiioonn




SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN11557799 PPoowwddeerreedd LLeeaadd BBaasseedd PPaaiinntt 11997733 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558800 OOrrggaanniiccss iinn SShhaallee OOiill 11998800 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558811 PPoollyycchhlloorriinnaatteedd BBiipphheennyyllss iinn OOiillss 11998822 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558822 PPeettrroolleeuumm CCrruuddee OOiill 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558833 CClloorriinnaatteedd PPeessttiicciiddeess iinn 22,,22,,44--ttrriimmeetthhyyllppeennttaannee 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11558844 PPrriioorriittyy PPoolllluuttaanntt PPhheennoollss iinn MMeetthhaannooll 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558888 OOrrggaanniiccss iinn CCoodd LLiivveerr OOiill 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11558899 PPoollyycchhlloorriinnaatteedd BBiipphheennyyllss iinn HHuummaann SSeerruumm 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11559900 SSttaabbiilliizzeedd WWiinnee 11998800 AAllccoohhooll CCoonntteenntt11559988 IInnoorrggaanniicc CCoonnssttiittuueennttss iinn BBoovviinnee SSeerruumm 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11559999 AAnnttiiccoonnvvuullssaanntt DDrruugg LLeevveell AAssssaayy 11998822 AAssssaayy11660011 CCaarrbboonn DDiiooxxiiddee iinn NNiittrrooggeenn 11997733 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11660044 OOxxyyggeenn iinn NNiittrrooggeenn 11996688 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11661100 HHyyddrrooccaarrbboonn iinn AAiirr 11996699 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11661144 DDiiooxxiinn 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11661177 SSuullffuurr iinn KKeerroossiinnee 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11661199 SSuullffuurr iinn RReessiidduuaall FFuueell OOiill 11998811 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11662255 SSuullffuurr DDiiooxxiiddee PPeerrmmeeaattiioonn TTuubbee 11997700 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11663300 TTrraaccee MMeerrccuurryy iinn CCooaall 11997711 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11663333 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn CCooaall FFllyy AAsshh 11997744 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11663344 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn FFuueell OOiill 11997788 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11663366 LLeeaadd iinn RReeffeerreennccee FFuueell ((GGaassoolliinnee)) 11997755 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664400 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn NNaattuurraall WWaatteerr 11999977 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664411 MMeerrccuurryy iinn WWaatteerr 11997744 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664433 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn WWaatteerr 11997777 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11664455 RRiivveerr SSeeddiimmeenntt 11997788 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664466 EEssttuuaarriinnee SSeeddiimmeenntt 11998822 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664477 PPrriioorriittyy PPoolllluuttaanntt PPAAHHss 11998811 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664488 UUrrbbaann PPaarrttiiccuullaattee MMaatttteerr 11997788 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11664499 UUrrbbaann DDuusstt // OOrrggaanniiccss 11998822 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11665500 DDiieesseell PPaarrttiiccuullaattee MMaatttteerr 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11665599 MMeetthhaannee iinn AAiirr 11997766 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11666611 SSuullffuurr DDiiooxxiiddee iinn NNiittrrooggeenn 11997766 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11666699 PPrrooppaannee iinn AAiirr 11997733 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11667777 CCaarrbboonn MMoonnooxxiiddee iinn AAiirr 11997744 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

11668833 NNiittrriicc OOxxiiddee iinn NNiittrrooggeenn 11997744 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11774455 IInnddiiuumm FFrreeeezziinngg PPooiinntt 11999988 TTeemmppeerraattuurree11776611 LLooww AAllllooyy SStteeeell 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11886666 BBuullkk AAssbbeessttooss -- CCoommmmoonn 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11889955 NNiicckkeell MMiiccrroohhaarrddnneessss -- KKnnoooopp 11998844 HHaarrddnneessss


SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN11889966 NNiicckkeell MMiiccrroohhaarrddnneessss -- VViicckkeerrss 11999922 HHaarrddnneessss11992200 NNeeaarr IInnffrraarreedd RReefflleeccttaannccee WWaavveelleennggtthh 11998866 WWaavveelleennggtthh11992211 IInnffrraarreedd TTrraannssmmiissssiioonn WWaavveelleennggtthh 11998844 WWaavveelleennggtthh11992222 LLiiqquuiidd RReeffrraaccttiivvee IInnddeexx -- MMiinneerraall OOiill 11999999 RReeffrraaccttiivvee IInnddeexx11993300 GGllaassss FFiilltteerrss ffoorr SSppeeccttrroopphhoottoommeettrryy 11998877 TTrraannssmmiittttaannccee

11994411 OOrrggaanniiccss iinn MMaarriinnee SSeeddiimmeenntt 11998899 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11994455 OOrrggaanniiccss iinn WWhhaallee BBlluubbbbeerr 11999944 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11995511 CChhoolleesstteerrooll iinn HHuummaann SSeerruumm ((FFrroozzeenn)) 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn11996600 NNoommiinnaall 1100 FFmm DDiiaa.. PPoollyyssttyyrreennee SSpphheerreess 11998855 LLeennggtthh11996688 GGaalllliiuumm MMeellttiinngg PPooiinntt 11997777 TTeemmppeerraattuurree

11997744 OOrrggaanniiccss iinn MMuusssseell TTiissssuuee 11999900 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22000033 AAlluummiinnuumm oonn GGllaassss -- FFiirrsstt SSuurrffaaccee MMiirrrroorr 11997711 RReefflleeccttaannccee22003300 GGllaassss FFiilltteerrss ffoorr TTrraannssmmiittttaannccee 11997766 TTrraannssmmiittttaannccee22003311 MMeettaall--oonn--QQuuaarrttzz FFiilltteerrss SSppeeccttrroopphhoottoommeettrryy 11998844 TTrraannssmmiittttaannccee22006699 SSccaannnniinngg EElleeccttrroonn MMiiccrroossccooppee PPeerrffoorrmmaannccee 11998833 EEffffiicciieennccyy

22007711 SSiinnuussooiiddaall RRoouugghhnneessss SSppeecciimmeenn 11998899 RRoouugghhnneessss22008844 CCMMMM PPrroobbee PPeerrffoorrmmaannccee 11999944 LLeennggtthh22009922 LLooww--EEnneerrggyy CChhaarrppyy VV--NNoottcchh TTeesstt 11998899 EEnneerrggyy22110099 CChhrroommiiuumm ((VVII)) SSppeecciiaattiioonn SSttaann''rrdd SSoolluuttiioonn 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22112211 SSppeeccttrroommeettrriicc SSttaannddaarrdd SSoolluuttiioonnss 11998844 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

22113355 NNiicckkeell//CCrroommiiuumm TThhiinn--FFiillmm DDeepptthh PPrrooffiillee 11998855 LLeennggtthh22226611 CChhlloorriinnaatteedd PPeessttiicciiddeess iinn HHeexxaannee 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22228877 EEtthhaannooll iinn RReeffeerreennccee GGaassoolliinnee 11999955 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22229944 RReeffoorrmmuullaatteedd GGaassoolliinnee 11999988 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22338811 MMoorrpphhiinnee && CCooddiinnee iinn FFrreeeezzee--ddrriieedd UUrriinnee 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

22338833 BBaabbyy FFoooodd CCoommppoossiittee 11999977 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22339900 DDNNAA PPrrooffiilliinngg SSttaannddaarrdd 11999922 SSttrruuccttuurree22339922 MMiittoocchhoonnddrriiaall DDNNAA SSeeqquueenncciinngg -- HHuummaann 11999999 SSttrruuccttuurree22441155 BBaatttteerryy LLeeaadd 11999911 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22441166 BBuulllleett LLeeaadd 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

22552244 OOppttiiccaall FFiibbeerr CChhrroommaattiicc DDiissppeerrssiioonn 11999977 DDiissppeerrssiioonn22552266 ((111111)) pp--TTyyppee SSiilliiccoonn RReessiissttiivviittyy 11998833 RReessiissttaannccee22553311 EElllliippssoommeettrriicc PPaarraammeetteerrss -- SSiiOO22 oonn SSiilliiccoonn 11999922 LLeennggtthh22554411 SSiilliiccoonn RReessiissttiivviittyy -- 00..0011 oohhmm ·· ccmm LLeevveell 11999977 RReessiissttaannccee22555566 UUsseedd AAuuttoo CCaattaallyysstt 11999933 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

22556677 CCaattaallyysstt PPaacckkaaggee ffoorr LLuubbrriiccaanntt OOxxiiddaattiioonn 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22557700 LLeeaadd PPaaiinntt FFiillmm 11999999 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22558833 TTrraaccee EElleemmeennttss iinn IInnddoooorr DDuusstt 11999988 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22667700 TTooxxiicc MMeettaallss iinn FFrreeeezzee--ddrriieedd UUrriinnee 11999933 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22667766 MMeettaallss oonn FFiilltteerr MMeeddiiaa 11997755 CCoommppoossiittiioonn




SSSS//SSRRMM TTIITTLLEE DDAATTEE AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN22668822 SSuullffuurr iinn CCooaall 11998822 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22669944 SSiimmuullaatteedd RRaaiinnwwaatteerr 11998855 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22771100 MMoonnttaannaa SSooiill 11999922 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22771122 LLeeaadd iinn RReeffeerreennccee FFuueell ((GGaassoolliinnee)) 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

22778822 IInndduussttrriiaall SSlluuddggee 11999988 CCoommppoossiittiioonn22881100 RRoocckkwweellll CC SSccaallee HHaarrddnneessss -- LLooww RRaannggee 11999988 HHaarrddnneessss22881111 RRoocckkwweellll CC SSccaallee HHaarrddnneessss -- MMiidd RRaannggee 11999988 HHaarrddnneessss22881122 RRoocckkwweellll CC SSccaallee HHaarrddnneessss -- HHiigghh RRaannggee 11999988 HHaarrddnneessss33008877 MMeettaall oonn FFiilltteerr MMeeddiiaa 11999900 CCoommppoossiittiioonn

33110011--6699 EElleemmeenntt SSoolluuttiioonn ffoorr SSppeeccttrroommeettrryy 11998866 CCoommppoossiittiioonn33117711 MMuullttiieelleemmeenntt MMiixx AA SSttaannddaarrdd SSoolluuttiioonn 11998888 CCoommppoossiittiioonn33119900 AAqquueeoouuss EElleeccttrroollyyttiicc CCoonndduuccttiivviittyy 11999900 CCoonndduuccttiivviittyy33220000 MMaaggnneettiicc TTaappee -- CCoommppuutteerr AAmmpplliittuuddee 11996699 SSiiggnnaall AAmmpplliittuuddee44220000BB PPooiinntt SSoouurrccee RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy 11996655 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy

44220011 GGaammmmaa RRaayy NNiioobbiiuumm--9944 11996655 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44220033BB CCoobbaalltt--6600 GGaammmmaa RRaayy PPooiinntt SSoouurrccee 11996677 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335500 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- RRiivveerr SSeeddiimmeenntt 11997755 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335511 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- HHuummaann LLuunngg 11998822 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335522 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- HHuummaann LLiivveerr 11998822 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy

44335533 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- RRoocckkyy FFllaattss SSooiill 11998811 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335555 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- PPeerruuvviiaann SSooiill 11998822 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335566 AAsshheedd BBoonnee 22000000 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44335577 EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy -- OOcceeaann SSeeddiimmeenntt 11999977 RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy44440088--2277 RRaaddiioopphhaarrmmaacceeuuttiiccaallss ((SShhoorrtt HHaallff LLiivveess)) 11996600''ss RRaaddiiooaaccttiivviittyy


The following table is the author's attemptto crystalize the most powerful driving forceson the selection and production of referencematerials over the first century of NIST oper-

ation. On less stable ground, guesses aremade at how new forces may develop overthe course of the next century, thus shapingthe SRM program in years to come.

AAppppeennddiixx CC PPaasstt aanndd FFuuttuurree DDrriivviinngg FFoorrcceess oonn RReeffeerreennccee MMaatteerriiaallPPrroodduuccttiioonn

TTIIMMEE FFRRAAMMEE DDRRIIVVIINNGG FFOORRCCEESS SSSS//SSRRMM RREESSPPOONNSSEESS11990011 -- 11992244 AAuuttoommoottiivvee AAggee EExxppllooddeess MMeettaallss,, OOrreess,, aanndd CCeemmeenntt

IInndduussttrriiaall PPrrooggrreessss TThheerrmmoommeettrryy//CCaalloorriimmeettrryyWWWW II SSuuccrroossee

11992255 -- 11994499 DDeepprreessssiioonn PPrriimmaarryy CChheemmiiccaallssIInndduussttrriiaall SSccaallee--uupp GGllaassss aanndd CCeerraammiiccssWWWW IIII AAlluummiinnuumm AAllllooyyss

11995500 -- 11997744 KKoorreeaa HHiigghh SSttrreennggtthh AAllllooyyssSSppaaccee RRaaccee HHiigghh TTeemmppeerraattuurree AAllllooyyssVViieettnnaamm MMeettrroollooggyy && SSeemmiiccoonndduuccttoorr

11997755 -- 22000000 HHuummaann NNeeeeddss EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall && CClliinniiccaallFFoooodd &&IInnffoo AAggee EExxppllooddeess FFoooodd && AAggrriiccuullttuurree

EEccoonnoommiicc CCoommppeettiittiioonn FFuueellss,, OOiillss && EEnnggiinnee WWeeaarr

Speculation:22000011 -- 22002244 BBiiootteecchh RReevvoolluuttiioonn NNeeww SSuuiittee ooff DDNNAA

IInnffrraassttrruuccttuurree RReeccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn LLaabb oonn CChhiipp VVaalliiddaattoorrssMMaannyy SSRRMMss bbeeccoommee NNTTRRMMss((NNIISSTT ttrraacceeaabbllee rreeffeerreennccee mmaatteerriiaallss))

22002255 -- 22004499 NNeeww ((FFuussiioonn??)) EEnneerrggyy AAggee UUllttrraassttrreennggtthh MMaatteerriiaallssNNaannootteecchhnnoollooggyy BBrreeaakktthhrroouugghhss NNaannoommeettrroollooggyy

22005500 -- 22007744 LLaarrggee--ssccaallee EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall UUllttrraa CCoommpplleexx NNaattuurraallRReeccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn MMaattrriixx MMaatteerriiaallss

22007755 -- 22110000 SSppaaccee CCoolloonniizzaattiioonn NNeeww FFuueellss,, FFooooddss,, MMaatteerriiaallss

NIST's Numerically

Controlled

Diamond Turning

Machine used to

manufacture

RM 8240 -

Standard Bullets

with identical sig-

natures.

national institute of standards and technology ...€¦ · ed at the beginning of the 20th century....

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